Lore
Definition Plot is any characterization or world-building initiated by the players interaction. Plot can occur between any two entities. a creature, character, item or player. Timeline * Mar * In the beginning, the world was unformed, * Mar had no water table and had a weakened atmosphere. * not enough water was available on the surface for the world to be cultivated. * some water appeared from asteroids, permafrost glaciers existed from the remains of comets. * Within the everlasting darkness of Mar, a single light flickered; a lum danced across the darkness. * The heart of the world was kindled by the lums. * the sun began to burn the debris which had orbited it, slowly leaking slithers of light onto the world below. * The glacial waters began to fill the basin, flowing to the undisturbed caverns. whilst the glaciers themselves sculpted new passes through the foothills. * the great trees had learned to shift with the rapid changing of temperatures of the planet. * as the water table replenished, so too did the emergent sea, and the great salt desert was swept beneath it. * The oceanic currents could not be predicted or even monitored. * during the height of day, boiling rivers would sculpt the land where the glaciers once began, and life appeared in the emergent sea, it soon became a warm saline ocean teeming with life. * every morning, the plains were covered with a film of dew. Exodus * the lums focused themselves into thought and created the first being. * whilst awake the being had vivid dreams and nightmares which it could document and recall instantaneously, and bring into existence. * taking pity on the fate of the world, he sacrificed what little remained of his lums to reach into the land and cultivate new life. * he created several progenitor creatures. the first of which were nightmarish and ill, only capable of stealing the dreams of others and never forging destinies of their own. * He was disheartened by his initial failings. * Later, he would create beings of incredible strength. these initially proved useful in carving out the landscape, to fold hills into the monotonous plains and to deviate the too-impetuous rivers. * He finished his creative efforts by conceiving the pariah, by far his weakest creation. * He sculpted the cave of bad dreams, where he could store his worst thoughts. * after these monumental processes had concluded; the creator degraded to a mere precursor. * His Pariah were broken creatures that struggled to deal with their own emotions and flesh. * the seas above were riven by such extreme tsunamis that many of the pariah perished due to natural conditions such as wind and rain. * The pariah that remained slowly conquered their constant pain, and climbed from the basin. * diminutive fruits grew near the small pools. * The pariah picked these fruits until their fingers were purple and prickled. * They would begin to discover their resplendent homeland, scattering to all corners of the world. * the emergent sea had areas with little salt-content at this time, and the pariah soon drank from its waters. * Pariah meet and befriend others in the tranquil southern grasslands. * The heart of the world was discovered and it's energies are siphoned into the few, causing the heart to be diminished. * Those that siphoned the heart became known as the precursors. who adorned plates of bronze and were now near immortal. * the tea trees soaked in the sun, sometimes, during hot-floods the leaves would brew tea in the flood-water * In the great valley to the south, younger trees sprouted, and a river of tea flowed by. * Pariah begin working with wood and later stone. * The first fruits are being spliced and cultivated, becoming distinct. * lums are being transferred from other Pariah; who begin to understand the link between lums and all life. * It becomes apparent that lums affect their general appearance and capabilities. * Many lums were lost as pariah ventured and perished in the cavernous depths. * Not many wished to relinquish their stolen lums. Pacification * After the destruction of the heart and the subsequent lethargy that overcame the Precursors and lesser pariah, the Conservator, Naya, began construction of the towers that you see littering the landscape. * The Conservator plotted to imprison a being of immense power behind a grand force field. The towers would channel latent lum energies into the shield, keeping it operational. While imprisoned, Nau would serve as a battery to the populace. * The siphoned energies would sustain the Precursors, allowing those within to feed their endless and growing magical pangs. Thousands of years passed and the power required to keep Nau imprisoned while sustaining life began to shift. The cost to keep Nau bound grew to overshadow the rate at which energy could be siphoned and distributed. The once net gain turned to loss * The Precursors were slain, not by invading armies, but by the Naya himself. * The people were destroyed in order to preserve the Conservators immortal life and near limitless powers. The power once divided among thousands now funnels into the conservator and his warriors. Those few remaining survivors were directly feeding power into the towers in order to keep Nau imprisoned. The demon broke free of its bonds and destroyed what little was left of the once great bastion. * With the heart diminished, all that it had once created begins to fade. * Many conclude that the time of the heart had ended. they would take what remained and continue without the heart. * The heart, which was in its final death throes long before the player was even born, received its end with the siphoning of whatever remained of it's energies. * The creator, using what little remained of his creative vision creates a sword capable of petrifying those coveting lums. * Using the sword, the first hero uses it to petrify the warriors, and harvest the lums. * The creator and the hero travel to the bottom of the world, an underground sea overlain with a thick fog. * The hero tosses the sword into the sea. * The creator tells the Hero that the lums sealed within the blade could never harm the world again, unless the blade was rediscovered. * His desperate action of discarding the lums, which had only succeeded in Revelation * whilst exploring the roost, Proa discovers a sword clutched by a weathered statue. * After severing it's hand, the statue’s curved blade fell free. Rolling sideways. Proa snatched the sword up in a smooth motion. * by withdrawing the sword from the earth covered stone, Proa would free the petrified being which had been contained * Proa had named himself the first sage. He began preparations to form a caste. * the fruit that grew nearby the entrance to the roost was plentiful. * Proa had the roost sealed with a thirty ton boulder. * Other sages began appearing across Mar, holding small domains and wealth's of lums. * Some pariah claim a hidden valley which they name the sealed land. * Naya rediscovers areas such as the immortal tower and the lair of Draconis. * Naya also rediscovers Nau and the cave of bad dreams. * The warrior sent four of his finest warriors into the cave of bad dreams to mete out the creator, and they never returned. * he himself entered the cave and after a brief conversation impaled the creator, whose natural lifespan was long since spent. * He consumed the majority of the creators own lum energies; to be redistributed amongst his creations. * The first hero handed the blade to the creator; and said that he had every right to challenge his rule, and that he welcomed the day the creator regained his strength. * The warrior returned to the sealed lands, and divided lums amongst the pariah, this transformed them into the precursors, and then named himself Sage. * his men suffered from bad dreams that evening. The first hero would suffer them the rest of his mortal life. * This had harmed him greatly, the warrior grew frail; but found a new passion in forming a library, which he curated. * others became aware of the distant tales of the Warrior and the presumed slaying of the creator. * Many explore In the maze-like canyon networks of the equator, a group of pariah discovered a hollowed volcano. * Many pariah disagreed with these actions; citing that they could have learned much from such a being, others are content that the power was divided amongst the precursors. * Hiryu and Naya travel to the mountains, where Hiryu carves out a monastery from the stone, forming a Dais. * Pariah began replanting stretches of tea trees, and forming areas such as the Crownlands, located on the mesa in the central valley. *Pariah establish independent domains mostly in high peaks and airtight caves, or far into the desert. *The pariah continue foraging and documenting the herbs, fruits and wildlife that surrounded their domains. * eventually the pariah rediscovered the art of forging and reforging precursor metal. * The precursors begin to uncover metal structures such as towers, gates and doors beneath the earth which they use to restore their stone structures. * Precursors deem pariah to be lesser beings, malformations that need not exist on the new world. * Naya encircles the mesa in the central valley, claiming the crownlands for himself. * The first hero subjugates several sages, and where he can, transforms worthy pariah into precursors. * Many precursors notice that by fighting the pariah, they are beginning to degrade physically. * The precursors absorb lums from the fallen, becoming far greater than they were before. * Earthern warriors are molded, who encourages the first hero to utilize them as they do not require lums to exist. * The precursors now more than ever are tutoring their brethren to manipulate lum energies, and soon great spires rise. * By uncovering ruins and old architecture, they learn lessons about the past, and progress increases significantly. * The immortal tower is partially uncovered in the heart of the sealed lands, once buried beneath forty meters of solid rock, many precursors relocate. * The first hero forces the abdication of Nau, reclaiming the east plains, and slays Nau shortly afterwards. The Caste is dissolved in the days that follow. * what remained of the creator resided within the shell of his mind, only coming out briefly as flashes of brilliance and fevered nightmares. * the creator still existed and documented his dreams and nightmares within a vegetative state. * The creator is visited by a warrior, eager to stop the influence of the first hero. * The creator offers his armor and what remains of his lum energies. * The second hero challenges Naya at the monastery. * he was wearing the armor of the creator, which glinted in the light of the once veiled sun, and the sword of the first hero, abandoned where he used it last. * Maran is attempting to deliver a stone of great power to the second hero, but fails to reach him before his pilgrimage to the peak. * The second hero is thrown from Naya's Domain, being swept into the river below. * Proa is outraged by the warriors actions, his grip on his sword hilt tightened, but he held his peace. He recalled the words of Master, reminding himself that though he and his fellow commander were very different, they strove for the same goals. * Determined to salvage what little he could. Idyll rallied the survivors and reestablished Nau. * The second hero meets the creator in combat, the creator is gravely wounded during the battle, but escapes in the last seconds. * The first heroes nightmares subsequently cease, and he names himself the curator. * Proa and his followers evacuate the capital, believing Naya is becoming far too powerful and no longer seeking the greater good. * Proa and the healthiest of his warriors immediately joined the campaign against Naya in desperation. * he planned to draw them away from the enclaves and engage them at close range on the most rugged and congested ranges he could find, with plenty of cover and lots of hiding places. but are later routed. * He was in turn surrounded and besieged by massive numbers in the natural fortress of the arboreal highlands. Despite even this, his Warriors held the mountains for months until the last remnants of his forces were evacuated. * Proa escaped gravely wounded, two arrows piercing his carapace, and was permanently slowed. * With no opposing military power in the region to stop Naya, the routed castes move to high peaks and airtight caves in evasion. * Though he dared not speak of it openly, Perhaps the castes would be better off seeking a natural harmony. * Proa drew one of the ornamental swords from the wall above and stabbed it through the arm of first hero before snapping its blade in half. * An old dark-skinned warrior had walked into the Great Museum claiming to be the creator, the famous hero of old, and demanded his distinctive armor be returned to him. * Naya underwent political upheavals, and began to lose power * The second hero being slain; the heroes son, citing his desire to end the conflict; having no desire to continue his fathers war, also eventually abdicated to Naya. * 12 years after the establishment of the kingdom of Nau, Nau surrendered to Naya. thus all were eventually conquered under the rule of Naya. * The war weary survivors, the few remaining which lived outwith Naya's rule, now focused on regaining their strength and forging a new path into an uncertain future. * the castes were divided on how to approach Naya. Most were content to remain north, while others would not rest until Naya's lands were reclaimed. Ideas * you learn later on that all of the ore in a certain area is of much inferior quality to another area, but you were too inexperienced to actually tell the difference, and this was common knowledge to all the blacksmiths in one area, and some of your enemies. * the end of the game is false, the escape of Naya, where the enemies are actually weakened, but not defeated entirely, the game has a full new section of story and a real ending if the player played the game correctly, the main enemies are defeated with certainty. * rain, on the rare occasion it does happen on Mar, is often warm to hot, and can be extremely destructive, forming seas overnight. * panning over to saul from great distance, showing his work excavating and repairing a precursor ruin showing how precedent the situation is. * minor plots should evolve into major ones and don't ever start with a big actor unless you plan to start bigger and make it small progressively over time, not instantly as a conclusion either. * first cutscene should be bad guys making things much worse. * implant an idea incredibly early, which the player ponders and thinks what could be the meaning behind it, then don't use it until the player has almost erased it entirely from their mind. * You can choose to stay and fight, which is much harder, and near impossible. The game will not stop you if you decide to stay, it will allow you to stay, but the game will be almost impossible and you'll regret it, and also have no way of reaching new areas. * an enemy manages to escape at the last second using unknown powers, you think he's still alive. It turns out he died soon after he escaped. You don't discover this until much later, you can then loot him. * Offered greatest desires by Saul, this however results in a bad ending, offers nothing when bad ending is denied. * not all choices can be made, choices require sacrifices, choices are sometimes not choices at all, but things you must do due to your own lenience earlier into the game. * a boss will beg to be spared to help defeat another boss. * put the player at the same level as the characters, the player should not be correctly assuming their next moves, but interested instead of what the next event could possibly be. * things mentioned right at the start of the game are extremely important to the later story, done in a way that isn't obvious. * a secret advantage some people have access to, but won't reveal to others. * boss was only doing what he was doing for the greater good, and proves without him things would get worse, if he is killed, things will gradually get worse. * the player will establish things as fact earlier, dialogue and text later on will question the depth and truth of things, and make the player question if there is more depth to these things that they don't currently know about. * a guild is forced to disband when you're in it, this means losing the rank, and for a time the caste is dispersed and unjoinable, forcing you to go elsewhere. * during a battle an unknown enemy destroys both sides, you and the Pyrrhic victory enemy are contemplating the loss of the battle. * throughout the course of the game, you are essentially playing as the grandson of the hero, the hero was killed by the end boss, and the world as a result the world is on the precipice of the end. * Although Saul was in undeniable control; Sauls power over the world gradually regressed, as he himself became more reclusive, now spending far less time as a conqueror, and instead curating the library. * you mourn the end boss, after you realise he was right all along. * Something terrible happens, but the player doesn't have enough context to realize just how bad this is until much later into the story. * after that battle, many warriors dropped their armaments and armor, ready to now live in the land of peace they had created. * seemingly meaningless dialogue at the start of the game can make changes to how the game proceeds, choices at the beginning of the game impact starting time of day to be dawn dusk or night. * waiting for hundreds of years, growing older hidden away at the end of the world, until the threat eventually finds him, and he even then refuses to face it and then he dies. * more time taken in the game causes the last boss to get harder, however large main story plots reduce this time. * the end of the game is in plain sight and obvious for most of the game, and is even accessed casually, however actually trying to take on the boss earlier would be foolhardy * the water caste keep documentation of all the waters on Mar. * some narrative lore-exploration in the form text concerning animals, plant life or other things with hidden uses and great advantages in gameplay, only available if the player actively searches for and cares about learning more about things. * Some decisions lead to worse paths, companions may be less well suited to roles and more prone to injury or even death, or cause missions to go unexpected directions. Companions can and will prematurely die if not careful. * there was a great sea, when it faded, it left salt, we should leave this on the flavor text. * the player should be able to piece together what the world once looked like, from evidence given by characters. this can help with finding relics or rare materials. * Saul has hundreds of lums, each time he is defeated he loses only a portion of them, returning hundreds of years later to a world that has grown due to his loss, weaker than before, but still incredibly strong, when he succeeds, he claims these lums back, and then some. * data mining AI defeated by flooding them with constant useless data. * lot's of reclaiming, and rebuilding in the universe, things aren't brand new, most things are rebuilt. * things that the player may notice earlier into the game and say "that's weird" actually become part of the plot later. ideas are left to stew hopefully until the player becomes curious when no other explanation is given, naturally, rather than being told they should be curious. * the sword when plunged into him, turned him into stone, and the sword and stone sat for hundreds of years, earth covered the stone, until, nobody even knew that the sword had been plunged into the dark being beneath, and, by cruel fate, by withdrawing the sword from the rock, the darkness would once again be set free. Rules The following is a list of rules all plot must follow: * The character will not do or says anything that you wouldn't do, and therefore you become so detatched from your character as a result. * No second chances, the plot moves on regardless if you make mistakes. There are other ways to achieve the same things. * the full game should play like an origin story. * just specific enough to give an understanding of what's going on, just generic enough to fill in your own mental images. don't beat someone with unneeded details unless they're important, place key information in the middle and don't draw attention to it until much later.